Caribbean nation. He spoke at the white house following the release of alan gross. U. S. Release three cuban agents in the exchange. This is 15 minutes. Good afternoon. Today, the United States of america is changing its relationship with the people of cuba. The most significant changes in a policy in fifty years, well end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests. And instead, we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries. We intend to begin a new chapter among the nations of the americas. There is accommodated history there is a complicated history between the United States and cuba. I was born in 1961, just over two years after fidel castro took power in cuba, and just a few months after the bay of pigs invasion. Over the next several decades, the relationship between our countries played out against the backdrop of the cold war. We are separated by just over 90 miles. But year after year, and ideological and economical barrier harden
Thank you for watching. We will see you back to tomorrow morning 7 00 a. M. Eastern time. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] quick live at brookings for discussion on u. S. Nuclear arms control policy with remarks expected from undersecretary of state for arms control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller, also expected to touch on the progress of the arms reduction treaty with russia and should get started here at brookings in just a minute or two. A lot of International Foreign policy in news with news that american allen gross has been released from a cuban prison after five years. It also includes the release of. Hree cubans jailed in the u. S. Senior u. S. Officials are say today the Associated Press reports Officials Say gross was on he was government plane bound for the u. S. On wednesday morning, this morning, so
Havana for the first time in half a century, and sweeping aside the last vestiges of the cold war. The surprise announcement came ofthe end of 18 months secret talks that culminated in a Prisoner Exchange negotiated in canada. Republicans dial in. And democrats. An independents. Also, waiting on twitter. Eigh in on twitter. And on facebook. We will get your thoughts in a moment. But first, alan gomez from the usa today from miami. What is the reaction from the cuban population there . Mixed bag, as you can imagine. On one hand, you have that older generation of humans take a shortly after fidel castro came over in cuba who are just enraged. They feel betrayed. They feel this is a fight they have been fighting for over 50 years and the government down there was on its last legs. I doing this, by doing this, they feel that the president gave them a lifeline and allow them to maintain a little bit of power with all of the money that will be headed to cuba now. But there is a Younger Gener
Intentions, no other nation joint is an imposing the sanctions. And they have had little effect, beyond providing the cuban government for rationale for restrictions on their own people. Today, cuba is still governed by the castros and the communist party that came to power half a century ago. Neither the american north cuban people are well served by a rigid policy that is rooted in event that took place before most of us were born. Consider that for more than thirtyfive years, we have had relations wwith china a far larger country also governed by a communist party. Nearly 2 decades ago, we reestablished relations with vietnam, where we fought a war that claimed more americans than any cold war country. That is why, when i came into office, i promise to reexamine our cuban policy. As a start, we lifted restrictions for cubanamericans to travel, and sent remittances to their families and cuba. Cubans have been reunited with their families. One of the best ambassadors for our values. A